adventures in the life of a Black Feminist archaeologist

Black Feminist Archaeology

Black feminist thought has developed in various parts of the academy for over three decades, but has made only minor inroads into archaeological theory and practice. Whitney Battle-Baptiste outlines the basic tenets of Black feminist thought and research for archaeologists and shows how it can be used to improve contemporary historical archaeology. She demonstrates this using Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage, the WEB Du Bois Homesite in Massachusetts, and the Lucy Foster house in Andover, which represented the first archaeological excavation of an African American home. Her call for an archaeology more sensitive to questions of race and gender is an important development for the field.

“Battle-Baptiste has wielded her keyboard in bringing awareness to the life stories of those who have too long walked in the shadows and invites us to bear witness to them. In doing so, she provides another crucial perspective to the growing literature on the potentials for transforming archaeological practice and theory, and the rationales for why this is necessary.”

—from the foreword by Maria Franklin, University of Texas at Austin

“Battle-Baptiste takes us on three journeys, through the history of African American life in the U.S., through the history of African American archaeology, and her own journey of as a Black woman making a career in the academy. Her insights emerging from her distinctive Black Feminist approach provide important and novel insights for any scholar interested in the American past and future.”

—Robert Paynter, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Whitney Battle-Baptiste is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at University of Massachusetts, Amherst. An historical archaeologist of African and Cherokee descent, she has done fieldwork at Colonial Williamsburg, the Hermitage, the W. E. B DuBois homestead, and other sites. She holds a Ph.D. from University of Texas, Austin and conducts research on plantations in the U.S. Southeast, the materiality of contemporary African American popular culture, and Black Feminist theory and its implications for archaeology.